How to build a brand in 2018: A guide from Rebrandly and HubSpot

The evolution in branding that has taken place over the past decade is staggering. It has moved far beyond the broadcast media that once fuelled the buzz around brands. Now in the online world, consumers are in control and will talk about your brand whether you’re involved in that conversation or not. Today, businesses need to do a lot more to build a trusted brand.

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But it is worth the effort as an engaging brand is essential to stand out in the digital world where consumers are constantly bombarded with messages. In our new guide, How to Build a Brand in 2018, we look at how to successfully build your brand in the digital era. We offer practical advice on how to structure your website, as well as how to monitor and measure the success of your branding strategy.

Hubspot and Rebrandly joined forces and brought together our expertise to create a guide for marketers who want to build a brand that appeals to modern consumers. To give you an idea of what to expect here are some useful insights from the guide:

What is a brand?

In the inbound marketing age, when we talk about branding, we’re referring to online branding. To get noticed online, a brand needs to have a differentiator or it’s own calling card, which becomes recognizable to its audience. This will be a unique aspect of your brand that should be present across all channel, whether it’s offline, online, or on some yet-to-be-invented technology.

Your brand is not your product. It’s not simply your logo, your website, or your name. It is actually far more encompassing than that and includes the visceral and often intangible aspects of your company’s identity as well. It is your company’s personality and how every aspect of your marketing comes together to create the image consumers are presented with. From your logo and tone of voice to your website’s structure and appearance, it all plays a part.

Creating your brand strategy

A brand strategy is a long-term plan that sets out how you will develop your brand’s presence successfully in order to achieve specific goals. You’ll plan every aspect of your branding from colors right down to your social media content and branded links.

In your strategy, it’s important to set out your brand’s value proposition – the something that differentiates it from similar companies and makes your brand unique.

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A branding strategy is the best resource to help your business build its desired brand image. But remember, it’s your audience who will ultimately determine how your brand is seen, so it’s important to create buyer personas and engage with customers when considering the details of your approach.

You need to monitor and measure your brand too, so you can understand the impact of your strategy and if it building the brand image you want. Check out our guide for all the details you need to know about how to build a brand strategy.

Putting your brand into play

Your content goes hand in hand with your brand and needs to be carefully considered. Once you’ve identified buyer personas as part of your strategy, you can use them to create targeted content that will appeal to buyers’ needs and interests and place this content where your target audience will see it.

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In our guide, we recommend that you create a brand voice that will appeal to your target audience and personalize your brand experience wherever possible – this is something that most people, particularly younger audiences, have come to expect from their interactions with brands online. Our guide also offers some practical tips on how to best decide on the structure and appearance of your website – the online hub for your brand.

Monitoring your brand

People will talk about your brand on places online that are beyond your control. There are blogs, vlogs, reviews and every sort of medium on social media. You need to track and monitor your brand online using some nifty tools, so that you can make the most of gushing reviews, but also so that you can manage your reputation when it all goes wrong.

Measuring your brand

While it can be scary to think outside the box for your branding, it can be easier to experiment when you see the effects of your branding strategy. With online tools, the success of your branding can now be judged using a quantifiable metric with clear results and outcomes. It’s crucial that you link your brand’s impact with your company’s conversions so you can understand the return on investment of your branding initiatives.

Everything you used to know about brand management is still relevant in the inbound age. But now your brand extends far beyond the realms that a business traditionally had control over. In past, if a customer had an issue with your brand, it was between you and them – and perhaps a couple of their friends. But online, any customer with internet access can publish their complaint for the whole world to see.

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From your website to your Facebook Page, there are so many aspects of brand management to consider in the age of inbound marketing. To retain a great reputation, you need to be more proactive, vigilant, and knowledgeable than ever before to establish a knockout brand and maximize your return on investment.

Download our guide on How to build a brand in 2018, which we put together in collaboration with HubSpot. We cover the above topics in greater detail and discuss practical examples of how well-known brands make their mark online.